No Sleep Tonight
by dancing-badly
Summary: Laura helps Bill grieve after Kara's "death"


No Sleep Tonight

Summary: set right after Kara's "death", Laura helps Bill grieve.

Laura watched Bill leave the CIC within a few minutes of hearing the news. Laura watched him leave; admiring the strength with which he carried himself out of there. She waited a few moments, standing in the near silent CIC, giving him a few moments to himself. As the crewmembers remembered that they still had jobs to do, the noises of boots, buttons, and papers being moved enveloped the depressed room. Laura made her way towards the door, nodding at Saul letting him know she was going after him. He nodded back with a gruff before he took command. Saul would check on the Old Man later, but it was Laura who could deal with this better than him, and Bill would be more comfortable.

She strode quickly through Galactica, her feet having memorized the path to his chambers long ago. Laura thought of Lee, he and his father would have to grieve together over this. Hopefully it wouldn't divide them like Zac's death had.

Acknowledging the guards, who at the moment seemed obsolete in protecting the man inside from pain, Laura went straight into his quarters. She heard a loud smash as if something had hit the wall.

Entering, Laura found the cause of the commotion as she stepped on a little silver angel surrounded by a sea of wood shards. She bent down to pick it up ---

"Go away." Said a dejected, but still powerful voice.

Laura looked for the man and found him sitting on the floor, in front of his couch, crumpled.

"Bill…"

He looked up from the abstract spot on the carpet he had been staring absently at. His eyes were full of unshed tears and his cheeks were spotted with the memory of those that already had.

She went over to him and squatted down next to him. It pained Laura to see this man in such pain; this man who rarely showed emotion was now showing more than anyone she had ever met. His pain was etched into his face and his body.

Laura lightly reached out her hand and touched him lightly on the sleeve, "Bill…".

Something about her presence calmed him and the touch on the arm and the loving way she said his name made his last barrier fall. He let his head fall onto her shoulder and his entire body sagged against her, drawing on her for support.

Slightly surprised by his reaction, Laura quickly wrapped her arms tightly around the man as he wept his soul out.

"Gods Laura….she….Kara…was like my daughter…loved her" he managed to get out between sobs. Laura pulled him tighter against her and rubbed his back soothingly, willing herself to give him her strength. Tears formed in her eyes and she began to cry, both for Kara and the wounded man she held so dear to her heart.

"I know…Kara was –" Laura paused trying to think of a work that encompassed who Kara was. "Kara was a remarkable person.".

"Lee…. he's not going to handle this well. He…he and Kara were…Zac."

"Let's worry about one Adama at a time." She lightly kissed his head as he shifted positions. "You should know that the Adamas I know are two of the most resilient men I have ever met"

Bill sat up and looked at her.

Cupping his face in her hand, she looked deep into his eyes, her soul hurting at the bare emotion he was feeling. "You'll get through this Bill…. We'll get through this". She placed a light kiss on his lips, mirroring his actions when she was nearly dying. A kiss to convey strength, friendship, courage, and of love.

He placed his head back on her shoulder and reached for her hand and held it tightly between his own. He had nearly stopped crying and was exhausted. Laura wiped a few stray tears off his cheeks.

"I think I need to get off the floor now." She laughed and agreed.

As they were getting up, the door to the hatch opened abruptly and a very distraught looking Lee rushed in. Without thinking odd of the President getting off the floor with the Admiral, he rushed over and grasped his father tightly.

"She's gone Dad!!" Lee cried as he held onto Bill for dear life. "She's frakking gone."

"I know son." And Bill started crying again.

Laura felt both honoured and like an intruder as she witnessed such an intimate moment between father and son. They had such a tenuous relationship; she was glad they could rely on each other though at such a time.

Starting to feel even more awkward, Laura decided to leave the Adama men to grieve in private. She wiped her cheeks and headed for the hatch.

"Laura." Bill reached out a grabbed her arm lightly.

"I'll leave you two."

He pulled her back to them.

"You're a part of this family too."

Laura looked into his face and felt a smile grace her features at what he said and what she saw in his eyes. Through the grief and the pain there was love. And regardless of the intangibility of their relationship, they knew it was there.

"Ya, you are…. Laura" Lee confirmed, wrapping an arm around the President of the Twelve Colonies and drawing her into their hug.

She wrapped her arms around the two Adama men; one she loved like a son, the other like a lover. Laura had considered them her family for a while now, but it felt…remarkable to have it acknowledged that she was apart of theirs.

THE END


End file.
